Countdown star Susie Dent, the queen of throwing shade, has come out with yet another golden zinger after it was revealed that Boris Johnson had paid a fine for breaking Covid rules.
Today, it was announced that the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak had been fined for breaking laws the government put into place at the height of the pandemic by attending parties.
Mr Johnson’s wife, Carrie Johnson, was also penalised for being present at a party in Downing Street during lockdown, with celebrities including Piers Morgan and Gary Lineker expressing their fury over the politicians’ flouting of the regulations.
Ms Dent, who’s been the resident word ace in Dictionary Corner on Countdown since 1992, delights her Twitter followers on a daily basis by dishing out a ‘word of the day’ – with her choices frequently inspired by current affairs.
While she didn’t mention the PM or partygate in today’s tweet for her word of the day, several people have interpreted her latest choice as a thinly-veiled reference to the fines.
‘Word of the day is ‘maw-worm’ (19th century): one who insists that they have done nothing wrong, despite evidence to the contrary,’ she wrote.
When Mr Johnson disclosed that he had been fined in a televised statement, he said: ‘I have to say, in all frankness, at that time it did not occur to me that this might have been a breach of the rules.
‘But of course the police have found otherwise and I fully respect the outcome of their investigation.’